It all comes down to this...

Just ahead of the 12-hour deadline before play, the individual pairings were released and began making their way around the world via social media networks. Now precise preparations could be finalized, and fans could scrutinize the choice duels as the Tromsø 2014 Olympiad ends with a bang - not just the fight for medals, but some top notch clashes between the world's best players.

by GM Jonathan Tisdall

Wang Yue - if the Chinese men's team are surprised to find themselves on the verge of winning a historic first Olympiad they're not showing it... | photo: Anastasiya Karlovich

In the Open event China need to beat Poland to clinch clear first. Their invulnerability - so far - would make them smart money to achieve 2-2 if needed, but this could mean China would need to bank on their tiebreak buffer holding out if Hungary were to catch them by beating Ukraine. Poland need a win to keep their slim chances of a medal alive, and hopefully will go for maximum glory. They have a tough team, and their teenage star Jan-Krzysztof Duda is having one of the performances of the event, with 8.5/10 on board three.

Hungary, alone in second, might be feeling unlucky about having drawn second seeds Ukraine, but the latter have been shaky and unconvincing from the start. Ukraine top board Vassily Ivanchuk will sit out the final match, but this isn't necessarily a break for the Hungarians - Ivanchuk has been a ticking bomb that has already gone off several times in the event - so Ponomariov will face Peter Leko on first board.

Hungary choose to use rising star Richard Rapport, who has won his last three games, on fourth board for the climax of the event, meaning that Judit Polgar will be watching from the sidelines. A story about her retirement from competitive chess was headline news during the rest day, and could mean that we have seen the last serious play from this icon of the game.

She hadn't given any clues when she appeared on the live broadcast earlier in the event and didn't rule out the possibility of a match against Women's World Champion Hou Yifan:

The potential destination of the bronze medal in particular is too messy to call. Fans should just sit back and enjoy a feast of prime team and individual match-ups.

Entering the final round, the third place tie in tiebreak order: France, Ukraine, Russia, USA, Uzbekistan, India, Azerbaijan, Poland - but this factor can change radically after all the final results are in.

Big encounters

Russia-France and Azerbaijan-USA are the kind of high-impact collisions we could have expected earlier. There have been rumors that this Olympiad could also be the last for Vladimir Kramnik and Gata Kamsky, who have both warned that their active careers are coming to a close. If so, Tromsø 2014 will become a truly pivotal event.

Will Vladimir Kramnik's top board encounter with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave be his last game at an Olympiad? | photo: Anastasiya Karlovich

India and Uzbekistan also have a shot at a medal, and a chance to make an already memorably strong Olympiad performance just that much better.

Magnus Carlsen came into national media focus with his decision to rest the last round and depart early, possibly due to non-chess reporters confusing this with 'dropping out of the event'. Norway 1 have no choice but to end a disappointing Olympiad with a rout of 103-ranked Malaysia. Anything less might even taint the surging public interest in the game here.

The Women's event

Can anything stop another Russian gold? Given their immense experience in tense situations, a match-point lead, and their closest rivals playing each other, the answer is probably a simple 'No'.

Bulgaria get a chance to try. They are seriously outrated on the bottom three boards, but led by experienced GM Antoaneta Stefanova, who will face the equally tireless Kateryna Lagno, who will also be playing her 10th game here.

The loser of the Ukraine-China match could leave Tromsø empty-handed. Not only does the cruel confusion of tiebreaks await, Germany could vault into sole third if they can manage the feat of upsetting 4th seeds Georgia in the last round. Georgia will be massively motivated, however, with a healthy enough tiebreak score to have a realistic chance of sneaking into bronze if they win and the Ukraine-China match is decisive.

Olga Girya has been rested after suffering her second loss of the event against Ukraine, so Natalia Pogonina will no longer have to struggle to see the action | photo: Anastasiya Karlovich

Get out your scorecards and follow the action! As an added bonus you can also... play bingo while watching the live commentary with Jan Gustafsson, Lawrence Trent and Einar Gausel, thanks to an inspired contribution from Sebastian Hagberg:

Statistics

Marketing

Using chess24 requires the storage of some personal data, as set out below. You can find additional information in our Cookie Policy, Privacy Policy, Disclaimer and Terms of Website Use. Please note that your data settings can be changed at any time by clicking on the Data Settings link in the footer at the bottom of our website.

Necessary Data

Some data is technically necessary to be able to visit the page at all. A so-called cookie stores identifiers that make it possible to respond to your individual requests. It contains a session ID - a unique, anonymous user ID combined with an authentication identifier (user_data). A security identifier (csrf) is also stored to prevent a particular type of online attack. All of these fields are alpha-numeric, with almost no relation to your real identity. The only exception is that we monitor some requests with the IP address that you are currently using, so that we are able to detect malicious use or system defects. Additionally, a technical field is stored (singletab) to ensure that some interactions are only processed in the browser tab that is currently active. For example, a new chess game will not be opened in all your current tabs. We use your local storage to save the difference between your local clock and our server time (serverUserTimeOffset), so that we are able to display the date and time of events correctly for you. We measure how our page is used with Google Analytics so that we can decide which features to implement next and how to optimize our user experience. Google stores your device identifiers and we send tracking events (such as page requests) to Google Analytics. These have no direct relationship to your person except for the IP address currently being used and your Google Analytics identifiers.
You can also enable more data fields, as described in the other sections. Your personal decision on which data storage to enable is also stored as necessary information (consent).

Settings Data

We offer a range of personal settings for your convenience. Options include which opponents you prefer to be paired against, your preferred chessboard and pieces, the board size, the volume setting of the video player, your preferred language, whether to show chat or chess notation, and more. You can use our web page without storing this data, but if you would like to have your individual settings remembered we recommend enabling this feature. For logged-in registered users this setting is mandatory to store information about your privacy settings, users you have blocked and your friendship settings. As a registered user we also store your data consent in these settings.

Social Media Data

We embed a Twitter feed showing activity for the hashtag #c24live and also make it possible to share content in social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. If you enable this option social networks are able to store data in your cookies or local storage for the purpose of these features.

Statistics Data

Enable this feature to allow us to gather more individual measurements and statistics, so that we can make better decisions about which content and features are important to you and should be a priority to improve.

Marketing Data

To help cover the cost of free services we would like to show you advertisements from our partner networks. Members of these networks store data on the banners shown to you and try to deliver ads that are relevant. If you choose not to allow this kind of data we have to show more anonymous advertisements and will be more limited in the free services we can offer. We use Google services to display ads. You can find details on how your data is handled here: https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads

Other Data

For registered users we store additional information such as profile data, chess games played, your chess analysis sessions, forum posts, chat and messages, your friends and blocked users, and items and subscriptions you have purchased. You can find this information in your personal profile. A free registration is not required to use this application. If you decide to contact the support team a ticket is created with information that includes your name and email address so that we can respond to your concern. This data is processed in the external service Zendesk. If you subscribe to a newsletter or are registered we would like to send you occasional updates via email. You can unsubscribe from newsletters and as a registered user you can apply several mail settings to control how your email address is used. For newsletters we transfer your email address and username to the external service MailChimp. If you buy content or subscriptions on chess24 we work with the payment service provider Adyen, which collects your payment data and processes information about the payment such as fraud protection data.